The View From Chicago
by thegirlinthecombatboots
Summary: A stray Night Fury makes her way to Chicago, befriends a teenager, and brings her to Berk for no apparent reason! What happens when this city kid is suddenly forced to live like a Viking? Obviously something unexpected. (Not sure if there will be a future pairing. Maybe a little, but I kind of just want to play around with this plot idea.)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! I'm sure you've heard people say all too many times "This is my first fanfic plz don't h8!" This is not my first fanfic. Hate all you want. I will, however admit that this fanfic is my playground, and I don't feel bad if it turns out to be really awkward, drawn out, and somewhat pointless at times. I'm trying to improve my writing skills without having to develop too many characters. I want to get better at writing longer chapters, so tell me how I do! :)**

* * *

><p>"You have no respect for me! You have no respect for yourself!"<p>

Yeah, well I don't…"

That's all I hear from downstairs. I'll bet that's all the neighbors hear too. Houses in the Chicago suburbs are squished pretty close together. I'm up in my room while my mother and my brother fight in the kitchen. It's already 9:00 at night; the sun has been down for about an hour now. Ash is probably getting anxious waiting for me.

I just want to get out of the house! However, I can't do that until those two finally decide to go to bed. I'm tired of their fighting. Ever since Dad died a year and a half ago, not a day has gone by without a screaming match going on. My twenty-four year old brother, Roman, thinks that he has to be the man of the house now. He was staying home until he finished junior college, and he was going to go to Arizona State for his bachelor's degree, but then dad got sick so he stayed home and got a job at the gas station down the street. Now he thinks he's supposed to take care of us. Mom just wants him to get out of the house and grow up. She wants him to just be a college kid and go to parties and stuff. She also wants him to remember that she's still his mom.

Alright, 9:02 is my limit! I'm going to use the good ol' "dramatic exit" strategy! But first, I have to get ready. I lace up my black Doc Martins with the real steel toe, put on my thermal, neon yellow, Under Armour hoodie, and grab my leather Harley Davidson riding jacket. I'm good to go!

I stomp out of my room and down the stairs. My mother and my brother take a second to wonder why I look like I'm ready to leave. Before they can ask me I scrunch up my face and yell, "I'm so sick of you guys fighting so much! Why can't you just get along? I can't stay here right now!" and storm out the garage door. I slam it as hard as I can for good measure.

Now all I have to do is get to Ash without my mom chasing after me. I pull on my jacket (February is really cold in Chicago) and get my phone out of the zipper pocket. I turn it off so Mom can't call me. I'll come home when I'm good and ready.

While I'm walking, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Elizabeth Alamanni, seventeen year old rebel. I mostly keep to myself at school, and I like to go out at night. In case you can't tell by my choice of outerwear, I like motorcycles. My dad and my brother are really into them too. I used to ride with my dad so I have all the gear, but I can't do that now. I don't have a motorcycle of my own yet, but I have something even better.

About ten blocks away from my house, just south of Joliet Road on the shore of the Des Plaines river, is where I meet Ash every night. I've kind of let on that Ash is a person, but she's not. She's my dragon. She's a foot taller than I am, and about as long as a bus. Her wings are kind of like that of a bat, and they stretch out about twenty feet! She's all black, with really pretty, gray-blue, cat-like eyes. I love her to death! She's my best friend.

I found her right after my dad died. I was hiking in the woods off the trails, and she was in the river diving for fish. When she saw me, she kind of freaked out, but looked almost relieved when I didn't make any move to get near her or go get someone else. To be honest, I was frozen out of half fear and half curiosity. She ran back into the woods on the other side of the river after staring me down for a minute or so. I had no choice but to turn around and go home.

The next day, I came back and she was still there. And the next day, and the next day. Eventually, she learned to trust me. I guess I learned to trust her too. Soon enough, Ash let me fly her. Only at night, of course. About two weeks after that, I took apart an old, broken down motorcycle and had a friend make a custom saddle for her. I added some small saddlebags that used to be on my brother's bike and a sort of handle made out of cut up leather strips from my old jacket. It works well enough.

I get to the river and Ash steamrolls me. She's always so excited for the sun to go down. That means we can finally go flying! "Alright, you nut case! You kind of have to get off me if you want to go flying!" I laugh. I give her a playful shove to the chest as she stands up a little more. After I wriggle out from under her, I pull my leather chaps out from one saddlebag, and a pair of leather gloves from the other. I won't need the helmet; the sky is perfectly clear.

Ash lays down so I can get on, then I tap her on the back and we take off. The wind in my hair is amazing! My stomach dances around and I can taste the difference in the air. I lean forward and whisper, "Take us anywhere, girl! We can figure out how to get home tomorrow!" Ash takes a slight left turn and I can feel her speed up. She's just as carefree as I am right now.

As Ash takes the lead, I get to thinking. I don't know if I want to go home. I could chuck my phone into Lake Michigan and fly until Ash gets tired. We could take care of each other in the woods or something. Or we could fly to a remote island where we would have everything we would need and Ash wouldn't have to hide! Whatever the plan is, I won't be separated from Ash.

Hours later, I regain some awareness of reality as we fly through a cloud. We're so high up now that any part of the ground not blocked by the clouds is invisible in the blackness. Right in front of me I can see the first rays of sunshine peeking over the horizon. They're so small, though, that they make no impact on the black beneath me. My watch says it's 11:26 in Chicago, which makes sense considering we're headed east. I stretch my arms out one at a time and lean forward. "Hey Ash, I think we should make a landing and take a break. I think I need a nap!" Ash groans back at me like she wants nothing less than to land right now. "Fine! But fly carefully because I'm going to try to sleep." I lean forward so I'm resting my head on the back of Ash's neck. I take the seatbelt I attached to Ash's saddle about a month ago and strap myself in. Then, I let my eyes close, and I drift off to sleep.

I wake up several hours later to the icy tingle of flying through another cloud. I sit up, yawn, wiggle a little to stretch out, and… HOLY MOTHER OF DISTANCE WE'RE ABOVE THE FREAKING OCEAN! "Ash! Where are you taking us? This is the ocean! There's no land for miles! The only chance of rest we might get is on an iceberg! What are you doing!?" I shriek. Ash makes a sound like she's laughing at me, and then just goes back to flying like this is totally normal! I guess my only choice now is to go with the flow.

I'm pretty sure we're over the Atlantic Ocean, since we were heading east earlier. The sun is directly above us now, so there's no way of telling which direction we're going now. I hope Ash knows what she's doing. By now I'm really hungry. My watch says it's already 6:45 AM at home. Except, I didn't pack any food. I figured we were going to stay in the country, or at least on land, where we could catch some fish and cook them up. Or scrounge up some change and head over to the nearest McDonald's! "Wherever you're taking me, we better get there soon, and they better have food!" I grumble. My insane dragon flicks me upside the head with her ear.

Another hour (that feels like a day) later, I finally start to see some hints at civilization. We pass over a decently large string of islands that are bound to be inhabited , but Ash still refuses to land. I lean forward: "I am starving! You probably took a quick dip for fish while I was sleeping! Let me down now!" I command. Ash finally gives in and dives down to a small island. It sort of looks like somewhere in Europe, but I can't really tell where.

Ash does her best to lay low while I try to find a place to get some food. Even just a bag of Doritos would make me the happiest dragon rider there ever was! The only true sign of civilization I can see is a three-foot stone wall that looks like it goes on for miles with a flock of sheep inside. I follow the wall for a little bit until I see an older guy sleeping against it on the inside. Maybe he's supposed to be tending the sheep or something. It's probably his property.

I do the only logical thing that one can do in this situation and wake the guy up. While I cautiously poke the man's head, I can't help but hope he speaks English! Otherwise I'm screwed. The guy absentmindedly swats away my hand. Then he realizes that he is indeed swatting away a hand, and bolts up. He's about a foot taller than me, which is a little intimidating. I try not to worry too much. Ash is only a holler away.

"What might you be doing, lass? You've got no business waking a sleeping man!" the guy shouts. He has a really thick Scottish accent. At least I know where we are now, sort of.

"Well, I'm kind of lost," I begin to explain, trying to sound as scared and little-kid-ish as I can. "I don't know where I am, and I'm really hungry! I don't have any cash or anything and my cell phone won't work and…" I trail off on purpose to make me seem a little more freaked out and in need of help.

The shepherd eyes me up, like he's not sure if I'm in as dire need as I say I am. "You look a little old to be lost. Can you even get lost on an island this size? I could walk the entire shore of Garbh Eilean before lunch!" So that's the name of the island we're on. That helps! Not.

The man is waiting for me to answer, but I'm totally caught off guard for a second. I almost accidentally tell him that my dragon took me here without warning! "I was actually on my… My boat! I was aiming for, uh, the Isle of Scalpay, but my map blew away!" Thank God my mom likes to watch odd documentaries! Thank God one of them happened to be about Scottish islands!

As far as cover stories go, mine has to be the worst, but the sheep guy doesn't call my bluff. Even though I'm clearly American. "Alright, lass! Let's get you some hot food and a new map!"

After that commences a few hours of awkward walking in silence, awkward eating in silence, and bits of one poorly made up story as to why and how I ended up on this frankly boring island. The shepherd dude doesn't once ask why I'm American, but he asks every other question in between bouts of not saying anything. "What's with all the leather? Where did you leave from anyway? Your mum let you come all this way by yourself!?" Every question gets answered with shady half-truths and really unrealistic lies. Thankfully, the guy still lets me eat his food and take his map. He probably thinks I'm a little insane.

Turns out, I made Ash drop me off in between the Hebrides islands and the Scottish mainland. I turn to the man one last time as I leave his house and say, "Thank you again so much for your hospitality! I really appreciate it!"

"Just make sure you know which direction you're going in, lass! If you go too far north, you might run into Vikings!" he warns. Obviously, he's joking. I'm not using this map for anything but trying to get back home! By now, I've gotten the chance to get a correct time for my watch. Right now it says 3:53 PM. Scotland is six hours ahead of Chicago, so it's 9:53 AM at home. Looks like I'm not making it back before my mother gets scared and calls the police!

With shepard guy not around anymore and my belly full, I can safely say that it's time to get off this island and move on! "Ash! Come on girl, it's time to go home!" I call out to my dragon, wherever she may be. Ash comes bounding out of a field of really tall weeds and throws me onto her back with her head. I have absolutely no idea why she's so eager to get back in the air again! We've only been flying for the past fourteen hours straight.

"Let's go home! Or at least back to America," I tell her. But of course, Ash doesn't listen. She takes off north instead. "Ash! I want to go home! I know I said anywhere, but this is getting a little ridiculous!" I try kicking, pulling on the saddle, and screaming in her ear but Ash refuses to listen to me! Considering that she's my only option for getting home, this is really inconvenient.


	2. Chapter 2

**So, here begins of the second chapter! I don't know what else to say really, so I'll let the story speak for itself.**

* * *

><p>The farther north Ash takes me, the colder things get. I have to put on my helmet to keep my ears from getting frostbite, and I have to zip up my jacket to fend off hypothermia. I look down, only to see a few small islands surrounded by more ocean. Fantastic! I've given up trying to get Ash to turn around. This dragon rider stuff involves trusting your dragon right? So I guess I should just trust that she'll keep me alive and eventually get me home.<p>

Ash spots this really tiny island, probably the last one we'll see before we get to the polar ice cap, and she dives down. It takes a lot of zooming in before it even begins to look like civilization might exist here. The first thing I notice: this place is really primitive! There are no actual roads, no modern-ish buildings, and no technology! Everything looks like a recreation of a painting out of my history textbook, except there are actually people living down there! The second thing I notice: the Scottish guy who fed me was right. These are Vikings. Everyone has those metal hats with horns coming out of the sides, the buildings look like ships cut in half and turned on their side, and everything is a lot bigger than it probably need to be.

Of course, here is where Ash decides to land. And of course, everyone stares at me when she does. "Get Stoick!" I hear someone shout. "Don't move!" Someone else demands (That one was probably directed at me). "Be prepared men! You don't know what she might do!" At that, about half the crowd that has formed around me draws out a weapon. Axes look pretty popular; that's very reassuring!

"Calm down! Put down your weapons!" This really big, hairy dude shouts as the crowd parts for him to walk up to me. This must be Stoic, whoever he is. He stares down at me, probably choosing his actions very carefully to look more intimidating than normal. And it seems to working! "What business do you have on my island?" he interrogates. I have no answer for him.

I awkwardly lift the visor on my helmet (I don't think I should remove it though; I might need the protection). "I… uh, didn't… You see, I had no idea... "

"Stop your stuttering!" Stoick bellows, cutting me off. I happily shut my mouth. "What's that behind you?"

"That would be my, uh… Dragon?" I answer hesitantly. I'm almost positive that these people are going to kill me. Why the heck did Ash bring me out here!?

Stoick looks like he's debating something in his head. Then he turns around and shouts, "HICCUP!" This scrawny, teenage boy comes forth from the crowd like he has no idea whats going on right now. It almost looks like he assumes he's in trouble.

"What did I do- WHAT THE…?" The kid I assume is Hiccup is suddenly taken way off guard. Then two seconds later, he regains his composure and begins inspecting Ash. Not really what I would expect from a scrawny teenager meeting his first dragon.

"Son," Stoick begins, "why does this stranger have your dragon?"

"Hold up! 'Your dragon'?" I question, suddenly gaining a lot of confidence. "Ash is my best friend and I found her out in the forest by the Des Plaines River so if she's anyone's she's mine!" All the Vikings look at me like I just spun my head around.

Hiccup notices this too. "Dad, she's right," he defends, "The scale pattern on her dragon is different from Toothless. Plus, Toothless's eyes are green, not blue."

The Vikings calm down and Stoick gains a very "oh…" look on his face. "Well then, if you didn't steal my son's dragon, why are you here on my island?" Stoick demands.

My confidence has receded again. "I didn't plan on being here, uh, sir. You see, Ash kind of took me here… and I didn't really know what she was doing. If I'm not in any trouble I'd be happy to, uh, leave now." I manage to tell him. "If the stupid dragon will let me leave."

"Wait!" Hiccup interjects. "I mean, uh, we would be happy to let you stay on Berk. At least to rest up before you head home, right Dad?"

"I suppose if the girl means no harm, she could stay for the night. As long as you look after her," Stoick agrees somewhat begrudgingly. "Take her to Dragon Training with you."

Hiccup nods at his dad and walks away. I guess I'm supposed to follow him now, so I do. Ash follows me, pushing the still crowded Vikings out of the way. I look around at everything, and it all looks like something out of an old legend. There are sheep and chickens wandering around, buildings that look fortified like the island is always at war, and ancient style carvings on everything. Plus, I can tell that they use torches to light everything around here; little metal things with scorched branches are attached to every upright surface. "So why are you here anyway? You never said," asks Hiccup, breaking my train of thought.

"Well," I begin to explain, "Ash just kind of dragged me here. I found her by the river a little while away from my house. Just wanted to get away from things for the night so I told her to take us anywhere. I guess 'anywhere' is here." Hiccup nods like he wants me to continue. "See, I live just outside of Chicago in America, so we can only fly at night. God only knows what would happens if she ended up on CBS! Or worse: if the FBI found her!"

Hiccup takes a second to think about what he's going to say. "I think I understood half of those words…" he muses. I guess he was actually thinking about what I said. "I get it though. You don't want Ash taken away from you. I know I'd be devastated if Toothless wasn't here anymore." He pauses before asking, "I don't think I've heard of Chicago before. How far away is the Sea of America?" Oh, if only he knew how weird that sounds!

I stifle a laugh, but I understand where he's coming from. He probably thinks Chicago is an island, like this place. I quickly try to explain in his terms, "Actually, America is the, uh, island I live on. It's really big as far as islands go though, so there's a… a lot of villages on the island. The one I live in is called Chicago."

"...Okay, that makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened this morning!" he deadpans. I can tell he's given up trying to understand me. He's probably going through as much culture shock as I am right now.

I take this opportunity to start asking about this place. I mean, I'm going to be here for at least the next few hours. "So tell me about this place," I request, "since my dragon didn't tell me anything about this unexpected journey she took me on."

"Your dragon probably had a reason to take you here. They always have reasons for the seemingly insane decisions they make. But anyway, this is the Island of Berk. It's the farthest north you can go before freezing to death. I suppose we would move, but we Vikings have stubbornness issues! It's winter for pretty much the entire year, and anything that grows here is tough and tasteless." Hiccup describes (with a little more sarcasm than I expected). As he finishes, we approach this huge structure that looks like Soldier Field with a chain canopy. "But, at least we have our dragons!"

Ash and I follow Hiccup around the the entrance to what I can only assume to be their version of an arena or a coliseum or whatever. It looks kind of like those old cellar doors where the stairs were outside and the door was more of a hatch you pulled up, but on a massive scale. There was a ramp leading down to the stage area where who knows what is usually killed or maimed on a regular basis for entertainment.

Holy crud, do they make the dragons fight each other for fun!?

Hiccup walks down the ramp, but turns around when he notices I'm still following him. "Maybe you should stay up here for a minute. So I can tell the others what's going on and make sure the other dragons are calm," he suggests, "You know… so nothing bad happens." Yeah, he probably just doesn't want Ash to get hurt before they can put her up against the reigning champ.

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," I pretend to agree. If he is up to something, I don't want to let on that I'm on to him. Hiccup nods and continues down the ramp. I wait a few moments for him to get out of earshot.

"Stay put!" I command Ash, then I sneak down the ramp, just close enough to where I can hear what's being said. I don't want any of them to see me listening in to something they probably don't want me to hear.

"What was your dad so worked up about today?" I hear a girl ask.

"That's actually what I wanted to tell you guys about," Hiccup answers.

"Did something catch fire?" a boy asks.

"Did something get crushed?" a similar sounding girl asks.

"Did something get crushed and catch fire? the first boy asks. Wow. They must be geniuses!

"No! Nothing like that. Someone from an island we've never heard of came to Berk. She says that her dragon brought her here," Hiccup tells them. I hear various exclamations of "what!?" and "huh?" throughout the people Hiccup's talking to.

"If she's a she, then I guess you'll have a little more competition, Astrid," says a new boy. Said boy then makes a sound like he just got punched in the gut, probably by Astrid. I can tell he's that kid who thinks every guy wants to be him and every girl wants to date him.

"Ugh, you guys just need to give her some space okay? My dad told me to bring her here so I can keep an eye on her. She's been through enough today as it is, being dragged Thor knows how far away from home to an island that probably doesn't seem like the friendliest place on Earth." Hiccup must be the group's leader because no one argues this point with him.

"So I shouldn't try to see who passes out first if we ran our heads together?" the not-so-bright girl clarifies.

"Exactly." I hear Hiccup start walking again so I sneak back to Ash before he has the chance to catch me. I busy myself with Ash's saddlebags so it looks like I've been waiting patiently for Hiccup to come back. "Okay, they agreed to not bombard you like the rest of the village did when you got here," Hiccup tells me.

I smile back and say, "Okay, cool," and follow him back down to the stage. To be honest, the place is really unimpressive. The floor and the walls are all stone. There's cages (probably for the dragons) to the side, but that's really it. Standing in a group are the people Hiccup must've been talking to a second ago. I can already put some faces to some voices. The chick in the spikey skirt is probably Astrid, the only one who doesn't seem to want to goof off. The twins are obviously the ones who kept asking about things being destroyed. They look like they don't have a clue about anything. The muscle-y boy is the one who pretty much said I'd want to date him. And then there's the shy kid who didn't say anything at all.

"Guys," began Hiccup, "This is, uh- What's your name?" That must've been awkward for him. Though, I did kind of forget that he has no idea who I am.

"I'm Elizabeth," I say, "I sort of accidentally found your island." However, everyone's attention suddenly draws from me to behind me. I guess they noticed Ash.

"Another Night Fury!" shouts the aforementioned shy kid, "We can study how they interact with each other! Maybe we'll find out why we haven't seen any of them other than Toothless! This is so going in the Book of Dragons!" He seems a little over excited.

I want to shout, "Study!? Ash isn't just some science experiment! She's my best friend!" but the situation suddenly becomes a little overwhelming. For starters, I see five dragons emerge from seemingly nowhere to stand behind the group of frankly already intimidating teenagers. Actually, make that four dragons; the green one has two heads.

"Fishlegs!" sighs the jock-y one, "Obviously she doesn't want you gawking at her dragon!" Thank you! Maybe he's not as bad as he sounded. "She wants me to take her up on Hookfang and show her how an expert dragon rider flies!" Nope, I was right the first time.

Hold on. The shy kid's name is Fishlegs!?

"Leave her alone Snotlout! She's freaked out!" Astrid defends, punching him in the gut. Snotlout (seriously, what is with these names?) says something back to Astrid, but I don't hear it. Hiccup enters the fray to try to calm them down. Meanwhile, the twins start hitting each other over the head with shields, probably feeling a need to be involved in the violence. Fishlegs slowly backs away from the group to partially hide besides what I can only assume to be his dragon. I take his lead and decide to get the heck out of here.

I hop on Ash's back and nudge her with my foot so she starts running. Before anyone visibly takes notice, we're back up in the sky. "Take us home, girl! I've had enough of this insane, lost-in-time island," I complain. Of course, Ash doesn't listen.


End file.
